


High-Octane Relationshipping, Olympic level.

by StAnni



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, Friendship, Insecurity, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 10:54:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18497485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StAnni/pseuds/StAnni
Summary: “We fight.  Like more than we did in Fillory.  And Eliot, he’s…stubborn, alright, like really stubborn and infuriating...”Thinking about Fillory tugs at his heart, and then maybe thinking about Eliot too, even not in Fillory, even grumpy and moody and slamming closed the fridge door that Quentin may possibly have left open, on fucking accident.  “He can be mean.” Quentin concludes, defeated and Julia, to her credit, smiles warmly, sympathetically, and rubs his knee. “Yeah, he’s certainly not without faults, Q.  We all know that.” And she winks at him, “which is why he gets a Margo,” adding “and you get a super-extraordinary-amazeballs-demi-goddess like me.”





	High-Octane Relationshipping, Olympic level.

It’s a year in and there should be a test they make you take before you are allowed to say you are ready for a relationship – and then they should make you retake that test yearly, make you do a fucking presentation, build a fucking diorama on why you should be allowed to continue to be with your significant other. 

Possibly there should be an endurance course too, scattered with magical obstacles and trickery, and someone astute and cold-as-fuck should measure your results, and there should be no medals, just a grave “yeah-you-better-be-sure” at the end of it. 

And then they should have unscheduled visits, audits even, where they secretly count every sigh, eye-roll, every under-the-breath curse and then take off points, maybe even take off five points a pop. It all should be aired, really, on live television, to overlords with the power to smite you if you’re being a dick.

Eliot would be smoted, no-fucking-question. 

Quentin would be fine – he’d be great, in fact, he’d be the only one who gets a medal, he’d be the king, yeah, the king of relationship material. Actually, if they did do all that, they would create a whole new level of relationship just for him – endurance relationships – Olympic endurance high-octane relationshipping. 

Julia just slowly blinks at him, as if he is the one that is insanely overbearing. “High-octane, Q” she asks, and he corrects her, because it is important “Olympic. Endurance...high-octane...relationshipping”

“Is he selling you on the relationship test thing?” Eliot asks as he pauses at the kitchen table – zipping up his duffel for his “Eliot-Only” night away with Margo. “I like the obstacle course idea.” And Eliot chuckles softly “...Oh...an obstacle course now...you're getting pretty detailed, babe.” 

Quentin closes his eyes, taking a breath, as Julia gives a short giggle, possibly at him – he can’t see – and kicks his leg softly with her foot. “Chill, Q, we’re gonna have some us-time.”

When he does open his eyes he can’t help but catch another eye-roll from Eliot and he snaps, because yes, he is not perfect either, alright, excuse him for being human “Hope you have fun getting blasted with your bestie.” 

Eliot, with a quiet smile, the one that used to be awesome but is now just…un-awesome, walks by, leaning over to put a kiss on the top of his head “Let him get it all out, Jules – we don’t want our boy imploding.” Just before Eliot closes the door behind him, he gives Julia a cutesy little smirk and Quentin looks at her, suspicious. “Whose side are you on?" She laughs, pushing up from his leg to get the wine Eliot took out for them from the kitchen table “Yours, Q, always.”

“He’s really…not that great…I mean, I know he seems like it.” Quentin says, just by the by, so that she knows, in case she even cares.  
“He’s all charm around you, and around Margo and around Josh. And Fen. And my mom. And sometimes, very rarely, when we are alone then yeah, sometimes he is charming. But he’s actually, in reality, most of the time, insufferable.” 

Julia sagely nods as she pours the wine, pausing only for a second before pouring in a little more. “Yeah, I get it can maybe be a bit much, you know. Now that it’s just the two of you.” She hands him the glass. It’s not a valid point though, and she should be informed. “It was the two of us for fifty years, Jules. Just the two of us. And it was great. It was fucking perfect. It sort of is the entire bedrock for whatever the fuck we are attempting here.” And she shrugs “Of course Q, back there you had zero distractions, well…and given…you did get to have the best of both worlds as he tells it.” She is teasing, and that is their thing, but still, it’s grating right at that moment. “Yeah well, he also reaped those benefits.”

Julia swallows a short laugh and he stops, mid sip, to put things in perspective – his perspective - “It’s not that I don’t love him. I fucking love him. Okay. That’s not the problem.” And Julia ventures, quietly “So then is everything…you know…good…intimately speaking?” 

The fact that she is coy is supremely ridiculous “The sex is great, Jules. The sex is not the problem either. In fact, the sex is possibly like…the only thing where there is no problem.” Julia chuckles and puts her hands up in an okay-okay-don’t-shoot gesture. “That and you love him.”  
Quentin replies, firmly “Yes.”  
Because, yes.  
And to which she adds “And he loves you, I mean, obviously he does.” To which Quentin rolls his eyes (he is allowed eye-rolls when Eliot is not around) “Yeah, I mean, he does.”  
And Julia leans forward, eyes wide and teasing “He definitely does, Q. I mean…he would have to.”

To Quentin’s frown Julia leans back, folds her arms expectantly and "gently" "encourages" him with a friendly smile: “So come on, Q, you’ve clearly been looking for cracks, let’s have a look.”  
It’s not like he’s been looking for cracks.  
“It’s not like I’ve been looking for cracks.” 

He sighs, looking for words “It’s that…I thought it would work. This. ” Julia arcs an eyebrow and fills his glass up again “It is working, though. You moved into your loving boyfriend’s amazing apartment where you have great sex and he gives you space to dork out with your best friend.” She gives a tiny shake of her head, “Is that so terrible?”

Quentin stares at her, exasperated. “I’m not a child, Julia. I’m not complaining just to complain. There are parts of this that is pretty shitty too, believe me. “ 

And she shrugs “Gimme a for-instance.” 

“We fight. Like more than we did in Fillory. And Eliot, he’s…stubborn, alright, like really stubborn and infuriating...” Thinking about Fillory tugs at his heart, and then maybe thinking about Eliot too, even not in Fillory, even grumpy and moody and slamming closed the fridge door that Quentin may possibly have left open, on fucking accident. “He can be mean.” Quentin concludes, defeated and Julia, to her credit, smiles warmly, sympathetically, and rubs his knee. “Yeah, he’s certainly not without faults, Q. We all know that.” And she winks at him, “which is why he gets a Margo,” adding “and you get a super-extraordinary-amazeballs-demi-goddess like me.” 

He sighs and sits back against the foot of the couch and Julia pulls a bag of chips close – popping it open. “To be completely fair, Q. I’ve never heard him say a bad word about you.” Quentin, gives her a look and tosses a chip at her. “Really, Sherlock. He wouldn’t. Not to you.” and Julia laughs, shaking her head, “Dude, you think Margo has the patience to listen to Eliot bitch about you? I promise you, that conversation over there is about Josh and only Josh, and like…how much Fen sucks.”  
“You know she’s living there now?” Quentin asks, momentarily distracted from his woes and Julia busts out a belly laugh. “Yes! Oh yes!! We have to sneak a hidden camera in there, or like, convince Fen to start a live vlog” 

After the mirth subsides, they are back in the moment and Julia, gulping a dip loaded chip with wine, gives him a “give-it-up” look. “Face it, Q. Maybe you’re just getting used to something normal, and you know, learning to suppress your slightly more unhealthy vice of… toxic, angst-driven, nightmare relationships.” He certainly doesn’t have to ask, although she has been very polite about, Julia has never been the biggest Alice-fan. 

For good measure she rubs her knuckles against his cheek in a mock punch  
“Learning is hard, buddy. Toughen up.”

They’ve been best friends for their whole lives and Julia may be, he accepts, the only person who is not only physically able to wade through his frustrations with him, but is also probably the only person, which includes him, to see them for what they are at the outset – insecurities.

“He’s going to get sick of me soon, Jules. Like…soon. I hope you have a pull-out couch.” He is only half joking and she smiles - only the half the smile that she really wants to smile - he knows - and it's fine, because she knows him.

“I got your back, Q”


End file.
